Go With the Flow

In studying the Bible, it's informative not only to look at an account of something, but where that account stands in the flow of events. In the Christianity Explored group I am leading, we looked at Jesus healing the blind man at Bethsaida (Mark 8:22-26), the only miracle Jesus performed in two stages. As we pan back from that miracle we see it sandwiched between two incidents. The one prior to the miracle closes with Jesus' statement to His disciples, "Do you still not understand?" The incident after the miracle has Jesus asking who people say He is, gleaning an answer first of partial understanding and then of full understanding with Peter's statement that Jesus is the Christ. From there Jesus asserts His mission involving betrayal, crucifixion and resurrection.

Sometimes people have an accurate but incomplete view of Jesus, seeing Him as good teacher or a pious example, even as God in human flesh. Sometimes they have a partial view of the gospel, understand a bit about sin and need for forgiveness but lacking the whole. Part of our witness is listening to a person's view of Jesus and the gospel and looking to how we can complete it.

Interestingly, that listening actually serves to do the same thing in their lives as we are talking about in our study of Scripture. It asks what knowledge they have and where on the continuum between partial and complete they are, where we can meet them to advance that knowledge.

To illustrate how it works, think of the knowledge you had of Jesus and the gospel before coming to a saving knowledge. You saw distorted truth, just as the blind man saw people as trees walking around. But it was the Spirit of God who convinced you of your sin and misery, enlightened your mind in the knowledge of Christ, renewed your will and enabled you to embrace Jesus Christ fully and freely offered in the gospel--the miracle of spiritual sight.

A.W.O.L. (Absent Without Love)

I met with a Christian brother recently who has been vigorously trying to get the Community Houses of Prayer ministry started in his local church. I've always admired this brother for his administrative skills and wizened ways. He knows the patience and perseverance involved in establishing new ideas, and he has exhibited this approach with CHOP in his church--starting small, building an enthusiastic nucleus, trying to bring influential leaders on board, working with appropriate committees. So far he has some enthusiasts who have seen the power of prayer, experienced the heart of God and transformed their mentality as witnesses for Christ through the CHOP ministry. But overall he has encountered apathy and even annoyance.

It seems his church has a mentality of mission that looks to foreign soil. Mission affects them as supporters of "missionaries." There is little sense of or interest in personal witness and how God might use them for the sake the gospel. Complicating matters is the academic approach of the church that is happy to be instructed in theology but reluctant to be involved in its practice. Discipleship stops at education at the expense of being equipped and engaged in service to Christ.

I'm sure these are generalizations and it would be wrong to paint each member of that church with the brush that colors the whole. However, it does highlight a problem with the church militant and the forces of Christ for the sake of gospel and advancement of kingdom of our Lord. It seems to me the culprits are lack of love for God and neighbor, absence of commitment to Jesus Christ and an obstinate view of the church as an outpost of Christ's kingdom.

I would value my readers' thoughts and opinions on the subject. I would also enjoin each us to importunate prayer, giving God no rest until He restores His church to the action of faith that believes the gospel is the only hope of salvation and that we are His appointed conduits.

"Why me, O Lord?"

"I have sinned ; the Lord is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong. Plead with the Lord."

"We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord.... Pray to the Lord."

Two admissions of guilt. Two requests for mercy. The first came from the lips of Pharaoh in Exodus 9:27, asking Moses to intercede for him. The second was uttered by the people of God in Numbers 21:7. Pharaoh would eventually face the judgment of God in the depths of the Red Sea. For His people, God would tell Moses to make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole that everyone bitten may look upon it and be spared the death he deserved.

What was the difference between Pharaoh and the Israelites that God should act as He did? The only answer we can find is that God will have mercy on whom He will have mercy. The only reason God provided a way of escape from judgment for the Israelites was that He had set His love upon them for His own reasons.

In the provision of the fiery serpent, God shows us Jesus, whom He sent in love that whoever looks to Him in faith may not perish but live, eternally. Jesus is offered to the world, Jew and Gentile alike, but offered for His sheep.

That we believe casts us upon the electing purposes of our God. We deserve mercy no more than the next guy, and we deserve judgment every bit as much as any other sinner. Our response has to be shock and awe at such amazing love and condescending grace.

May this amazing love grip our hearts and compel our witness that we might be the ones to hold up Jesus that everyone who sees Him and believes on Him might gain eternal life.